Apparatus for heat-treating air-pervious strip material



May 31, 1949. H. J. WALTER ET AL APPARATUS FOR HEAT TREATING AIR PERVIOUS STRIP MATERIAL Filed NOV. 16, 1945 INVENTORS Ham/J fwd/22,- 1 a l A. Rose /7- ATTORNEY Patented May 31, 1949 PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR HEAT-TREATING AIR-PERVIOUS STRIP MATERIAL Harold J. Walter, Uxbridge, Mass., and Paul R. Rose, East Orange, N. J.

Application November 16, 1945, Serial No. 629,087

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to apparatus for heat treating air pervious material.

The term air is used herein broadly to include any attempering gas.

The apparatus disclosed herein is adapted to pass all or a controlled amount of the attempering air employed directly through a strip of material which it is desired to heat treat or other wise attemper, as for example for drying, curing, or baking, or for fixing a substance, such for example as resin, in or on the material, or for a combination of these purposes.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple, practical and efilcient apparatus of the above mentioned kind.

. Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus adapted for uniformly heat treating material.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device which when used for curing is adapted.

to raise all portions of material being cured, uniformly and in the same time interval, to the same temperature.

Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus which when used for drying is adapted to remove moisture from all portions of the material, uniformly and in the same time interval, and to remove moisture from the interior of the material being dried substantially simultaneouslywith, and to the same extent as, the exterior surfaces of the material.

Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus for accomplishing the above mentioned objects while regulating the speed of travel of, the material in accordance with its character, condition, and the temperature employed to produce a uniform product unimpaired in quality.

Other objects of the invention will be in part obvious or in part pointed out hereinafter.

Theinvention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, arrangements of parts, and in the several steps and relation and order of each of said steps to one or more of the others thereof, all as will be pointed out in the following description, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claim.

The invention will best be understood if the following description is read in connection with the drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an embodiment of the invention, taken on the line I-I of Figure 2; and

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus illustrated in Figure 1, taken on the line 2-2 Above the path of the strip of material M the air impeller I3 is provided adapted to direct air downwardly through the flared hood l4 and the laterally extending air vents or nozzles I5 which are positioned just above, and are directed tor ward, the path of the strip of material to be treated.

is provided a perforated backing member it which serves to support the strip of material M,

and prevent it from being deflected by the force of the air from the air vents I5. Extending across chamber Ill and downwardly from directly beneath the perforated backing member I6 is an exhaust passage 11, which may be provided with any suitable means such for example as exhaust fan Hi, to aid in drawing out through the exhaust passage the air which has entered the top of the exhaust passage after passing through the strip of material M. The exhaust passage ll extends transversely of chamber l 0 and is preferably located adjacent the front wall of the chamher so that the portion of the attempering air which has passed through the wettest portion of the incoming strip of cloth will be exhausted. As illustrated the exhaust passage ll extends transversely across the chamber beneath the perforated backing member I6 from the front wall of the chamber approximately one-sixth of the depth of the chamber and thus exhausts approximately one-sixth of the air passing through the strip of material being treated. The area of exhaust passage I! may be varied in accordance with the character and condition of the material being treated to provide a suitable and eflicient ratio between the amount of air or other drying gas being exhausted and replaced and the amount being recirculated.

Positioned within the chamber I ll directly below the perforated backing member 16, and extending across chamber l0 within the mouth of exhaust passage I! in the embodiment of the invention shown-herein, is the conduit I8 in which i shown. The conduit: l8extends transversely of 3 chamber 10 and at its top has a slot l9 preferably directly aligned with one of the slots or perforations of backing member It so that a suction action is exerted on the material through slot l 9 tending first to draw oft" any loose moisture en- 5 trained on the strip. The effectiveness of this vacuum slot is greatly increased by its utilization within chamber: I; where it coact-sxwith the-air impeller or fan l3 in causing highly heated air to pass through the strip of material M. This co; 1e. operative action results in increasing the speed and therefore the volume of air passinggthrough the strip within a given interval;v Thisspeed'lis. further increased due to the fact .that thehot air cools rapidly while passing through a moist strip M with the result that it rapidly loses volume and contracts. Since the vacuumtpumpoperatilngcinh conduit ill will have a substantially constant B. P. M. the result of this decrease in volume is that more air is pulled through the strip into conduit d l8within agiven interval of-ti me. The accelerrated drying thus obtained may be increased by employing a plurality'of conduits l3.

Thus in the event'the apparatus'is being used to dry wet material the utilization of-"the vacuum slot within chamber Illserves to speedily reduce the moisture content of the material M, and consequently reduces the length of travel of the material, the time of treatment; or both; required for completing th'e'drying of the materialwithin 3 chamber 1 I 0;

If chamber lll'is beingused for curing material which has already been dried the extent of vacuum drawn upon conduit l8 may be variedas desired, or it may be cut' out entirely :if Tor. 3:,- any reason a curing or baking operationdsf'd e sired and moisture removal is not desired;

Extending through chamber 10 from rear-to front, on either side of thepath-of the material M and below it are the heater units '2 fl'fwhichare n illustrated as gas heaters-but maybe'any'suit able source of heat, the heatingmeans utilizedbeing preferably capable of heating the airwhich" is brought into contact with-the travellingstrip" of material M to a temperature well 'above ll- Fi and desirably to from- 300" F5 to 800"F. or even higher. p

' The air impeller means l3 may be driven-by any suitable means, as for example by driver pulley I3? As illustrated herein a double 'inlet fan is employed whichsucks'air m from both: sides and forces air .downthrough the flared hood I l and through the laterally extending slots; or nozzles l5 which, as has beenstatedfaredi rected toward the portion oft-a strip of materialextending through chamber .l'll between 'thefront and rear wall slots H and I2 respectively; The;

airwhich passes through'the strip andiis' not exhausted through exhaust passage 'll'," or' va c-" uum' conduit i8, flows into close proximity to the-"=66:

Any air which is defiected'from the strip may be ""ohamber' having exit and entrance openings fora similarly recirculated. i

A damper 22'-is provided to substantielly close' 'r the slot I l in .thefront wall of chamberf'l "with; out interfering withjth'e entry ofmaterial-- and it will be seen. that. thepressure of air passeing downwardly inv thespace between: the ends TIO of .the air vents l5 "and the cloth willtendjto" maintain damper 22 in closed position."

Air is ordinarily permitted to'enter'intq cham be r I'll: through" slot l-2 and isordinarily deflected:

damper 23 which is positioned intermediate a damper 24, by which the amount of outside air entering chamber I0 may be regulated, and damper 25, which controls Whether all of the air from air vents I5 is forced through the strip of material M or Whether a portion thereof is deflected from the surface of the material M and recirculatedt,

In the position of damper '25 as shown in full ilines in Figure 2, with dampers 22 and 23 both closed, it will be noted that a pressure chamber is: provided, the top of which is defined by the bottom of flared hood M which terminates in the.transversely extending air vents or nozzles l5; and .ofwhich the side walls are provided by the dampers 22, and 23 and 25 respectively, and the bottom: of 'whichis defined by that portion of vtherstrip of material M which happens to be within chamber ID. The pressure within this chamber is readily controlled by the damper means providedf primarily by damperli, and when the damper means are=olofsed thepressurbuilt up within thesaid pressure-"chamberwill force all of the air supplied from air im'pellerifli to passdirectly through the stripof material M, and thus all of the air will be "caused"to" come in contact with the 'interiorof the-strip M as well as with its upper and lower-surface pertions. As a result ver evendryingor c'u'ring' -may be obtained;

In the case of material which ismainlysub" face impregnated. as in heavier fabrics suchaQ plush and the like,the damper meansmay'be readily regulated as by moving damper '25 "from its closed position, indicated; in'full lines';toward its open position; indicatedin broken'linea -so that only part ofthe air supplied from air impeller !3 will be forced through material'M and apart, regulated according-to the'need, will be deflected from the upper surface oftlie clothz The device described herein is not only ex ceedingly flexible but has much less bulk "than similar apparatus now in use fordryingfcuring' or baking strip material such} for 'example, as textile fabric, paper;'andthelike. Because" it's even, uniform treatment very highspeedsof' travelofthe material and very high temperatures of the attempering air, are made possible;

It will thus be seenth'at there has-been pro 'vided by this invention an apparatus in which the various objects hereinabove'setfortl'itogether with many thoroughly practical advantages are successfully achieved. As various possible em bodiments might be'made ofthe mechanical=fea-- tures-of the above invention and' as-thear'there in described might bevaried' in various-partsg -a j without departing from the-scopeofthe iriven tion, it is to be'underst'ood that all-matter here'- inbefore set forth or shown in the accompanyingdrawing is to be-interpreted 'as illus-trative and not in a limiting sense."

What we claim is: Apparatus for conditioning and-dryi-nga strip- ,oir'utextile material whiclr comprises a closedtheqstrip .of material, meansfo-r' supporting sa strip of material for travel through'said charm-=- ber; a port for admitting air into said-chamber,

an air exhaust port, means for- -controllingethev volume of 'air admitted into andexhaustedafromw said. chamber, .air heatingmeans positioned in said chamber adjacent the air inlet,-and, means. for directing the heated air against the surface. of the material,,a perforated supportmembefr into "t eu per p i 1" e 1 bwtH 'I tXtendmg across the' chamberonthesideof"the material remote from said air directing means, the walls of said air directing means forming, together with the chamber walls, air passages leading from beyond said perforated member and from the surface of the strip of material against which the air is directed back to said heating means, whereby air which is passed through the dryer portion of the material and air which has been deflected from the surface of the material is returned, ,mixed with incoming air, and reheated and recirculated, and individual means for controlling the flow through said passages.

HAROLD J. WALTER. PAUL R. ROSE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number 

